In many medical procedures, various physiological conditions present within a body cavity need to be monitored. These physiological conditions are typically physical in nature—such as pressure, temperature, rate-of-fluid flow, and provide the physician or medical technician with critical information as to the status of a patient's condition.
One device that is widely used to monitor conditions is the blood pressure sensor. A blood pressure sensor senses the magnitude of a patient's blood pressure, and converts it into a representative electrical signal that is transmitted to the exterior of the patient.
In the prior art, it is known to mount a sensor at a distal portion of a so-called sensor wire and to position the sensor by using the sensor wire in a blood vessel in a living body to detect a physical parameter, such as pressure or temperature. The sensor includes elements that are directly or indirectly sensitive to the parameter.
One known sensor wire has a typical length of 1.5-2 meter, and comprises a hollow tubing running along a major part of the wire and having an outer diameter in the range of 0.25-0.5 mm, typically approximately 0.35 mm. A core wire is arranged within the tubing and extends along the tubing and often extends out from a distal opening of the tubing. The sensor or sensors is/are preferably arranged in connection with the distal portion of the core wire, e.g. at the distal end of the sensor wire.
The present invention is e.g. applicable in relation with a sensor wire of the type described above.
In one application the sensor wire of the type described above is used to measure pressure in blood vessels, and in particular in the coronary vessels of the heart, e.g. to identify constrictions in the coronary vessels. This may be performed by determining the so-called Fractional Flow Reserve related to the vessel. The sensor wire is typically inserted by use of an insertion catheter, which in turn is inserted via the femoral vein or the radial artery, and guided by the inserted catheter to the measurement site.
In order to power the sensor and to communicate signals representing the measured physiological variable to an external physiology monitor, one or more cables or leads, often denoted microcables, for transmitting the signals are connected to the sensor, and are routed along the sensor wire to be passed out from the vessel to the external physiology monitor, via physical cables or wirelessly.
The sensor element further comprises an electrical circuitry, which generally is connected in a Wheatstone bridge-type of arrangement to one or several piezoresistive elements provided on a membrane. As is well known in the art, a certain pressure exerted on the membrane from the surrounding medium will thereby correspond to a certain stretching or deflection of the membrane and thereby to a certain resistance of the piezoresistive elements mounted thereon and, in turn, to a certain output from the sensor element.
In U.S. 2006/0009817 A1, which is incorporated herein in its entirety, and which is assigned to the present assignee, an example of such a sensor and guide wire assembly is disclosed. The system comprises a sensor arranged to be disposed in the body, a control unit arranged to be disposed outside the body and a wired connection between the sensor and the control unit, to provide a supply voltage from the control unit to the sensor and to communicate a signal there between. The control unit further has a modulator, for modulating the received sensor signal and a communication interface for wireless communication of the modulated signal.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,724,148 B2, which is incorporated herein in its entirety, and which also is assigned to the present assignee, another example of such pressure measurement system is disclosed. The pressure sensor wire is adapted to be connected, at its proximal end, to a transceiver unit that is adapted to wirelessly communicate via a communication signal with a communication unit arranged in connection with an external device.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,112,598 A, which is incorporated herein in its entirety, and assigned to the present assignee, and also in U.S. Pat. No. 7,207,227 B2 further examples of such pressure sensors and guide wire assemblies are disclosed.
Thus, the interface unit, the system and the method according to the present invention are applicable in sensor wire assemblies as disclosed in the above-referenced patents and patent application.
Current wireless disposable sensor interface circuitry arranged in connection with such above mentioned transceiver unit, e.g. the Aeris™ (trademark owned by the applicant) transmitter, uses a high-precision matched resistor pair in a bridge type circuit, excited from a voltage source. However, these resistors are costly and can not be readily integrated in a single chip interface circuit.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved intravascular sensor interface circuit that may be integrated into a single chip configuration and which therefore is less costly, much reduced in physical size and that also provides high measurement accuracy.